Silhouettes are made of these: an early-morning sun, a river, a swami.

At Talakad, the site of the famous curse that is believed to have rendered the Maharajas of Mysore childless, a devotee takes a dip during the Panchalinga Darshan on Monday.

“In the course of the power struggle with Vijayanagara, Raja Wodeyar skirmished with the empire’s viceroy Tirumalaraya and his subsequent tiff with his wife Rani Alamelamma led to the supposed suicide of the Rani in AD 1610. She threw herself into the Cauvery with the famous three-line curse which is said to be the reason for the submergence of Talakad in sand, a whirlpool at Malingi, and the childlessness in the Wodeyar lineage.”